A timeless romance drama and a pleasure to watch for the first time even a decade after it's initial release.
(spoiler warning)

I've seen countless dramas adapted from novels but in the case of "Ballad of the Desert" it truly felt like a novel-come-to-life. The characters, the interactions, the set up... everything felt like you could read it exactly like that on the pages of a book.
Script doesn't always translate well into reality but thanks to the cheeky and fun acting of Eddie Peng, the male lead came to life as all-in kind of guy that once he loves, he loves HARD. Possessive male leads can come across as toxic and icky super fast if they're only a tiny bit too close to reality and make you wonder how you'd react but here it's just d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s, again thanks to the novel-like feel of the drama. I mean who doesn't want to be chased by a hot general, that makes you feel like you are the only girl in the world?!

But a good ML is not all that makes this drama so enjoyable. I really liked the desert scenes, the set up of the story - a girl from the desert, that can fight and is not shy, finds herself in a love triangle that is *finally* worthy of being called a love triangle. Because if I see the "love triangle" tag one more time in a drama where it's just unrequited love I WILL throw fists!
Even if in this case it does start out as a typical one it just gets sooo good, when Xin Jue loves both and is loved by both. I read a lot of people hated it but THAT right there is the essence of 2010s love triangles (see the vampire diaries, jane the virgin). I don't know at what point and WHY love triangles suddenly turned into this weird thing where the lead girl or guy can only ever like one person. Don't call it love triangle if there is no LOVE TRIANGLE but just a third wheel.
The best thing about it here is, it makes you conflicted. Only a few (realistic) tweaks in the story and she would end up with the other guy. Not in a way where you are thinking "SML is so much better" yada yada but rather the story takes you along and you realize sometimes courage takes time to develop but people move at difference paces in life and ultimately there is no great difference in love, but in who is faster.

In all things romance I really like the writing of this drama. Not just between the leads but also everything surrounding them builds it up quite well. So many moments where I was totally loving it, stomping my feet or audibly saying "OMG".
I know censorship has always played a part in drama production but in 2014 it was much more lenient. I am fairly certain that this could not air these days anymore, nor have we seen a romance like this in years. Simply too sexy :P
The "I'll be your unlawful wife" scene is something straight from wattpad imo. Also the end of ep23... um what?! is this a vampire drama now? -there is a lot of playful biting this drama, haha.
I can say all of this having finished the drama but you definitely have to stick with it for a bit until it gets good. I'd say it was interesting more after EP5 and I loved it most EP15 onwards.
One mega plus point of this drama is FL has no female competition in love, what a nice and rare thing in dramas. She is going through a lot of growth and also does some questionable things but I prefer this much more than a too nice to be true FL. She sees through people and is never easily deceived. Very satisfying in that regard!
As you can tell by now I really liked this drama and I just think it just really worked for me and I hope it will for you too :)... that goes to say I also read some people gave up on it midway, which I find a pity because it constantly picks up again after being a bit slower for an episode or two (when it focuses on other characters around ep 20-22). It never stays in one place for long and this made it easy for me (a serial dropper) to keep watching.
That being sad it’s not perfect …the dubbing actors, especially for all important male roles, are the ones you heard a million times before. Fight scenes done by the FL are a bit comical (sound effects) but get better the more wars happened. Just a few CGI scenes are laughably bad but thank god they only use it 3-4 times in the entire drama. I think back then (2014) it must have had quite a good budget and I think you can definitely tell…it doesn’t look cheap in my opinion and by ep15 I completely forgot to even think about how it’s an old drama.

The OST is still stuck in my head and I recommend you check out 'Bai Touyin (白頭吟)' and 'A Kind of Courage Called Giving Up有一种勇气叫放弃)' by Della Ding.

This review has been anything but spoiler free so far, but this is my official real SPOILER warning as I will be discussing the ending and the "yet..." part of the review.
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If I had to summarize the big downside of this drama it would be "a great love story told, yet another story left unfinished" because essentially only the romance is tied up nicely (happy ending) which - granted - is THE main story. I am also aware that this drama is the Adaptation of one part of a novel trilogy so it only makes sense that the story is yet to be finished but the sequel drama has nothing to do with this story so I doubt we'll ever see more.
Ironically this drama gave me the satisfaction of the kind of happy ending "A Journey To Love" only left us to imagine. But in that is also sadness because if everyone thinks they're dead and revenge never ever took place, a lot of the story has been in vain - except for the main's romance. Brings me back to the point that this drama is heavy on romance and proved it once more with the ending. We're given what we wanted - a happy ending for the leads - but all the schemes and other plot points are left untold. It's not super annoying either but just a bit of a "hm" moment. For example... what happened to Hu Wei Li? He only showed up for one glance in the second to last episode but damn, his character and desert kingdom was too interesting to not be given closure about! Also FL's dance house bestie. Is she really left to believe that FL died? I mean we know QX thinks so and she totally wasted her life, forsaking her happiness to seek revenge but nobody ever even knew that. Worst attempted revenge ever...in a sad way. Also Shan'er? I know he's not the real Er but he doesn't know that nor does the King so when he grows up people will tell him his parents abandoned him and that is just SAD. I really would have loved to see the falling out in the Imperial Court and Harem because there was bound to be one massive house collapse after the Emperor lost his right hand man. For Mo Xun... I think his ending is pretty clear. The small tweaks in the story didn't happen and therefore the ending is fitting. In a true love triangle only one couple can remain and if there is happiness for the third party at the end it's not a true love triangle in all it's painful glory (according to me, hehe).

But here comes my counter argument and somewhat explanation of everything I just wrote: After finishing the drama I did some research and a LOT of the characters as well as the story of the palace is actually based on reality. Wu Ji, QX, Li Jin, the entire Wan/Wen Family and the Emperor were real people (different names tho) and many scenes come from historical records (the deer incident with Li Jin for example). This explains a lot because those stories also did not end and continued for generations. If you read up on it you'd also find out that the way our leads escaped is how the actual people met their demise. Wu Ji is actually based on the infamous general Huo Qubing that only lived until 23 and died under mysterious circumstances. It's quite the tragic story, although it did not include romance nor did the FL or SML exist. This is not part of the drama review but I fell down the rabbit hole and now I see this drama in a different light. In all fairness most of the drama is fun and not much sadness but my view has been a tad bit tainted with sadness after reading the real tragedy of the story, LOL.

Ep15-19 were my favorite because that’s when the leads are in the desert at war away from the palace. But when they came back FL kind of abandoned the dance house and I don’t quite get what all the build up before was for, if she was not going to pursue that career (she manages the house). On another note I loved that this is not a palace drama… meaning neither ML nor FL live there nor are the controlled by them for the most part. There is palace scheming later on but it won’t break the leads up and they always care more about their love than the rules and regulations. PDA in ancient times is high with these 2! They don’t care to show public affection
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All this goes to say, I LOVED THE DRAMA and actually the end is quite alright. Would have been crazy if a drama from 2014 was that much better than dramas in 2024 so yeah :D But in terms of flirty ML Wu Wei Ji is one of a kind! Loved him a lot, the teasing chemistry between the two leads was great. Definitely one of my favorite romances.
There is a lot more I could say but I feel like this review is already way too long, so I'll leave it at that: It's well worth the watch if you are a romance lover and what a pleasure to watch Eddie Peng as his best romance Character one last time before he quit acting in dramas (as of now).

P.S : please, if you watched the drama and also fell down the rabbit hole trying to decipher the meaning of "funghi soup" in ep27, tell me you also saw the comment "soup is just soup" after reading through hundreds of disturbing replies and almost losing faith in humanity. Haha